Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Should the stay be lifted?

From the LA TImes:
Although the federal courts expedited their handling of the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8, the issues are far from resolved. And now that the California Supreme Court has been asked to weigh in, the case could be delayed for another year or more.

Enough already. Gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to wed while the case works its way through the system....

Every day that the case drags on, gay and lesbian couples who would like to marry are being deprived of their civil rights. That's not our wording; the federal trial judge decided that issue, at least for now. The denial of constitutional rights, even temporarily, is a deplorable situation that must meet high legal standards to be allowed to continue. In our view, those conditions have not been met.
....
Right now, same-sex couples are being deprived of their constitutional right to marry, and every indication is that unless the stay is lifted, they'll have to keep waiting for more than a year. That is real harm, and there is no valid reason to allow it to continue.

11 comments:

JCF said...

Hear, hear!

JCF said...

AG Kamala Harris [FWIW: Hottie!] has asked the stay be lifted! :-D

wv, "booked": what I hope wedding sites will be for California same-sex couples, SOON!

IT said...

I actually think it's not so bad that we're waiting. As the momentum builds up on the outside, it can only help us.

Anonymous said...

MAYBE OBAMA HAS FINALLY DONE SOMETHING FOR THE GAY COMMUNITY

WILL THE GOVERNMENT CHANGE ITS DEFINITION OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE FOR IMMIGRATION PURPOSES? MAYBE YES.

Please Help!

We invite potential DOMA project participants to contact us if they are same-sex binational couples who are married (or planning to marry) and who want to join our campaign to end discrimination in immigration law.

Visit us today www.equality4allnow.com

JCF said...

Um, IT, you ARE married. For those still waiting, even another *day* may be excruciating.

Another welcome editorial here [In addition to being from "a socially conservative Catholic family of Mexican descent", Breton is also known as the Bee's SPORTS columnist (he was featured in Ken Burns' recent update of his "Baseball" series on PBS). In other words, he's a macho manly-man jock type, coming out in favor of marriage equality in CA]

JCF said...

Um, did my last post disappear? [Blogger may be glitching again.]

IT said...

JCF, I have no control over the hiccups of blogger; post again and I'll delete any duplicates if they appear!

JCF said...

[I ask this, because something similar happened at Counterlight's place a week or so ago. My comment posted (no moderation delay) ... then when I checked a few hours later, it was gone. Doug later found it an a SPAM folder. WTF?]

First, I posted to disagree w/ you IT (natch, as is my contrary nature!).

Re your "I actually think it's not so bad that we're waiting," I said you already ARE married. To a couple who is still waiting, even another *day* delay may be EXCRUCIATING!


***

Then, I linked to this, noting that the writer, Marcos Breton, is not only from "a socially conservative Catholic family of Mexican descent", but is also the Bee's SPORTS columnist (who was featured in Ken Burns' recent "Baseball" update). He's a manly-man MACHO type, coming out in favor of marriage equality in California. Another ally on our side . . . to (hopefully) End the Wait! ;-)

IT said...

Good call, JCF. They were indeed in the SPAM folder. I have deleted the duplicates.

Re. waiting: yes, I know, easy for me to say.... but waiting for a little while longer actually works for us precisely because of the costs of it.

The fight for marriage is really a fight for a very narrow swatch of people in the middle--they are a little unsure, not true believers on either side. Those people are likely to respond to injustice. Judical fiat just gives our enemies talking points. The real cost--the real HUMAN cost-- is a human face on why marriage matters.

Also, the longer we go, the more likely it is that we'll have more judicial support.

Frankly the only way to truly win, is to win the repeal at the ballot box and make all the lawyering moot. If we can do that, then that really will be a game changer, not just in CA but nationally.

IT said...

Thanks for the link, BTW--I will highlight.

Oscar Pagan said...

MAYBE OBAMA HAS FINALLY DONE SOMETHING FOR THE GAY COMMUNITY

WILL THE GOVERNMENT CHANGE ITS DEFINITION OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE FOR IMMIGRATION PURPOSES? MAYBE YES.

Please Help!

We invite potential DOMA project participants to contact us if they are same-sex binational couples who are married (or planning to marry) and who want to join our campaign to end discrimination in immigration law.

Visit us today www.equality4allnow.com